Police in Thailand have launched a crackdown on abortion clinics amid a boom in the underground trade.
This week police, raided a Bangkok home suspected of facilitating and undertaking the procedure.
During the police sting at a home in northern Bangkok, an undercover policewoman successfully exposed a backyard abortion clinic.
“I was asked first ‘how many months pregnant are you’?” the policewoman said, “and I said ‘I am three months pregnant’ “.
“They told me to take and insert these tablets and then the blood will come, they said ‘I should do it at home’.”
The tablets cost 6,000 baht or about $A240.
Thai police said they were not abortion pills but something far more dangerous. They said abortions also occurred at the site.
“We know it has been done here without proper medical conditions, just a matt on the floor and insert the pills. It’s dangerous, some women have died,” head of the operation, deputy inspector Verapol Sagnurt, said.
Inspector Verapol said it had been his duty to uncover Bangkok’s hidden clinics.
“Thailand is a Buddhist country,” he said.
“To do abortion is dangerous for the women and it is also a sin. The most important thing is it’s a sin.”
Underground trade is booming
Abortion is allowed in Thailand if the woman has been raped or her life is at risk if the pregnancy goes ahead.
In all other cases termination is against the law, meaning many women are still resorting to old-style backyard abortions.
Illegal abortions are punishable by up to five years in jail.
But underground, there is a booming trade.
It has been estimated up to 400,000 illegal abortions are undertaken every year and more than 1,000 women die in the process.
In the surrogacy case of Baby Gammy, for instance, the ABC obtained documents showing one Thai doctor was willing to perform a late-term abortion at seven months for about $800.
In 2010, more than 2,000 foetuses from illegal abortion clinics were found hidden in a Buddhist temple in Bangkok.